New measures aim to combat 'excessive' rents in Brussels

The Brussels parliament has adopted a proposal for an ordinance to combat unfair rents and set up a Joint Rental Commission (JRC) with the aim of stopping over-priced rental accommodation in the capital

The ordinance, tabled by Ecolo, Groen, the Parti Socialiste (PS), Vooruit (Flemish Socialists), PTB-PVDA (Belgian Workers’ Party) and the minority TFA (Team Fouad Ahidar) sets 1 May 2025 as the date when several amendments to the Brussels Housing Code come into force on this new rent committee that will issue opinions on rental fairness.

Under the new arrangements, tenants will be able to appeal to the commission if the rent is 20% higher than the property’s estimated reference rent.

The JRC, made up of landlord and tenant representatives, will issue an opinion within two months, based on additional criteria such as the quality of the property, and if for example its terrace, garden or luxury parquet floor would justify the extra cost.

“On average, housing is the biggest item of expenditure for the people of Brussels. This historic ordinance is a response to the housing crisis and marks a major turning point in the fight against precariousness,” said Brussels MP Kalvin Soiresse Njall.

“Between 2010 and 2020, Brussels rents went up by an average of 83%, five times more than inflation and three times faster than the average wage. After paying their rent, low-income households in Brussels sometimes only have a few euros a day to live on,” the Ecolo MP added.

First adopted in 2021, the so-called “abusive rents” ordinance provided an initial legal basis for rent control in Brussels.

The current ordinance aims to reinforce some of the articles that have not yet come into force. It will mean that if a rental property is excessively priced, a judge can force the landlord to reduce the rent and houses with substantial defects will also be penalised more severely.

According to regional housing researchers, some 20% of rental properties in Brussels are considered to have excessive rents - about 30,000 homes.

“The right to housing is enshrined in the constitution and should be an absolute priority,” said Brussels MP Martin Casier (PS).

“Our aim is not to attack owners and landlords, but to fight practices that limit access to the housing market that prevent Brussels residents, especially at the lower end of the rental market, from finding proper housing at a fair rent.”

At the heart of the debate is the "rent reference index", a tool introduced in 2022 to help tenants and landlords set rents to a median value based on the neighbourhood and property features. The index is based on data from 14,500 rental contracts and has been adjusted for inflation but not yet updated with more recent leases.

The new measures will expand the rental commission’s powers, allowing it to issue a “presumption of excessiveness”. This would remain non-binding, but could be used in court by tenants to seek rent reductions. Importantly, the law would ban setting rents above the index, although there is no direct enforcement mechanism.

Left-wing parties, supported by tenants’ associations, say the measure will give Brussels residents suffering exorbitant rates the right to appeal, without the need for strict rent controls across the whole market.

But right-leaning parties, along with the construction sector, say the data is out of touch with market realities. They argue that enforcing the new law would render some landlords’ activities illegal and discourage investment into the housing market, leading to less and also poorer quality accommodation.

Olivier de Clippele (MR) told RTBF that the rules would result in fewer properties and so higher rents.

MPs Benjamin Dalle (CD&V) and Mathias Vanden Borre (N-VA) say the ordinance should not be implemented because the rent scale – the basis of this ordinance – does not match real rental prices.

“The intention, namely lower rents, is good. But the consequence will be fewer homes of lower quality on the rental market,” said Dalle.

Meanwhile, MPs Joëlle Maison (Défi) and Imane Belguenani (Open VLD) highlighted the legal uncertainty. They said implementation of the ordinance should be delayed by two years, to allow time to create a more solid basis for the reference rents.